Carnot Case Study

Carnot Ltd – Accelerating Engine Innovation

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Introduction

Carnot Ltd is a London‑based engineering startup pioneering ultra‑efficient, zero‑emission engine technology designed to decarbonise heavy industry, long‑haul transport, and off‑grid power systems.

Founded in 2019, the company has rapidly grown its engineering team and secured significant funding and grants to support prototype development of its next‑generation fuel‑agnostic engines, which target high efficiency and minimal environmental impact.
Carnot’s ambitious objectives required robust digital tools to support complex design workflows and enable scalable collaboration across its expanding design team.

As Carnot progressed from concept to advanced prototype stages, the team encountered challenges managing increasingly complex CAD models, design iterations, and collaboration across a distributed engineering workforce. Early workflows were strained by the volume of parts and the need to track changes in real time. In addition, Carnot needed a data management solution capable of standardising engineering information and preparing it for structured lifecycle activities as the company scaled.

PLM Central worked with Carnot to adopt a modern product development platform centred on PTC Creo and PTC Windchill. Creo, offered via cloud‑native deployment, provided the engineering team with advanced CAD capabilities and the flexibility to handle large assemblies and multiple parts efficiently.

Windchill complemented this by giving Carnot a structured PLM environment to manage versioning, change tracking, and cross‑team access to product data. As part of the engagement, PLM Central arranged an intensive demo and support pathway, including access to the PTC Creo Creators Program, making it easier for Carnot’s startup team to onboard and leverage the full capabilities of the software.

The implementation of Creo and Windchill helped Carnot streamline its design workflows, enabling faster iterations and better coordination across designers located in the UK and Europe. With cloud‑based Creo, the team could work with large models and track changes consistently, reducing delays and rework caused by data confusion. Windchill brought formalised data standardisation from the outset, giving Carnot a robust foundation for future growth, supplier collaboration, and eventual manufacturing planning. As Carnot continues to mature its prototype engine design and expand its team, this PLM strategy supports both innovation and operational scalability.

““Creo has been a game‑changer, helping us accelerate the development of Carnot technology by months, if not years. What we didn’t fully realise we were going to get was world‑class data management through Windchill, which gives us the capability to standardise data from day one — and this will be increasingly important as we recruit more designers and open collaboration to partners.”